Hay is commonly baled for storage and transportation. However, baled hay is quite large and heavy, and thus difficult to handle. To solve this problem, conventional forklift devices are often used to load bales of hay onto the back of agricultural tractors or trucks. However, once these bales of hay are transported to their destination, they must then be unloaded using similar forklift equipment. This process can be very arduous and time consuming since it requires heavy machinery to both load and unload the hay.
It is therefore desirable to equip the transportation vehicle itself with a device that is capable of both loading and unloading large objects like the aforementioned bales of hay, so that use of standalone heavy machinery such as a forklift is not needed.
Such a device is disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/082,491. The device is removably attachable to a roof of the vehicle, and includes a top rack slidably and pivotally attached to a mounting rack. The top rack is driven from a position on top of the vehicle to a loading/unloading position by a motor-driven linear actuator. Guidance during movement of the top rack between the top of the vehicle and the loading/unloading position is provided by a pair of telescoping damping members located on opposite sides of the mounting rack. Each telescoping damping member has a first end pivotally connected to the mounting rack, and a second end pivotally connected to the top rack, and therefore the telescoping damping members and pivot connections bear a substantial portion of the load during movement of the top rack relative to the mounting rack.
The present invention seeks to provide increased stability by shifting the load from the pair of telescoping damping members and pivot connections to a fixed track, thereby distributing the loading forces over an extended and more stable structure, reducing wear and providing increased safety.